


A Thousand Words

by Sterling_Jay



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Family, Friends to Lovers, Pre-Relationship, Realizations, family photos, pre-First Date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-13
Updated: 2016-12-13
Packaged: 2018-09-08 07:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8835631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sterling_Jay/pseuds/Sterling_Jay
Summary: A picture says a thousand words, and Emma's just found one that might tell her what she needs to hear to take a chance.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magicsophicorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicsophicorn/gifts).



Emma goes to Regina's office for their daily lunch 'meeting' at Granny's, only to find out that she's stepped out for an emergency meeting.

"She'll be back _very_ soon," Regina's secretary assures her, ushering her into Regina's office. 

She sits in the Mayoral Chair (' _Throne_ ,' she thinks) when the secretary leaves, closing the door behind her, spinning in it ('Like an idiot, Miss Swan.'), before she decides to actually take a look around.

There's some stuff on the walls- degrees from universities that Emma's positive Regina's never even seen, an aerial pic of the town- she squints, trying to figure out if that's a helicopter leg in the corner of the photo, or a dragon's claw. She'd believe it either way. Mostly, it's just Storybrooke related stuff- she laughs to herself when she finds an old timey article about the founding of Storybrooke 'over 100 years ago', and really, Regina did a great job casting the curse to make the town history believable.

She sits again, spins some more ('Really, Miss Swan?' She can hear Regina's voice pretty clearly), and then she slows to a stop, facing the desk itself. A couple budget reports, a couple complaints, a thick stack of paperwork in folders, papers sticking halfway out of them in some areas- she takes a peek at that one, sees it's Regina's paperwork on all the villains that've popped up since she arrived, the damages they've done.

And there's a vase with some flowers too, nothing particularly fancy, but they're sitting beside a couple of picture frames. She rolls the chair forward, wanting to see which pictures of Henry Regina picked for her desk. There's a frame with multiple portraits, Henry and Regina at the beach hugging sharing the center oval, and then one of them at a picnic, a science fair at the school, Henry WINNING the science fair at the school... The next frame is of mother and son in front of 108 Mifflin Street, Regina behind him with her hands on his shoulders. They're both a bit stiff in this one- Emma thinks it might've been taken just before Henry ran away to Boston. Which means that Sidney Glass probably took it. Emma frowns, setting the picture back down.

The last picture- it's actually sitting a lot closer to the back of the desk, where Regina would be able to just reach out a hand and grab it, instead of having to lean like she would with the others.

The frame's nicer too. Not that the others are terrible, just, it's got a different weight to it. It feels different. She pulls it over and is surprised to see it's a picture of her and Henry wrestling at one of those mandatory family picnics Snow keeps throwing. It's just the two of them, Regina's not in frame, but she thinks Snow is probably the one who took the picture.

Regina walks into her office as Emma's running her finger around the frame, starts like she wasn't expecting to see her.

"Emma. What are you...?"

"We were going to grab lunch? Your secretary told me you'd be back soon, so I thought I'd wait in here." She goes to set the photo down, but instead hands it to Regina who's reaching for it.

"Your mother took this picture." Emma nods. "She told me how difficult it was to get you to stay still to take a picture," she says, grinning and setting the frame back in place. "But it's a good picture, and I asked her for a copy. I wanted to have a picture of my son and my..." the grin freezes as Regina searches for a word to describe what Emma is to her.

Emma takes in that statement.

Regina wanted the picture of Henry and her, specifically. Not just because it's a good picture of Henry- objectively speaking, it's really _not_ , Snow's finger is a shadow on the image, Emma's head is ducked down so you can only see her hair, and Henry's face is a blur of motion (a joyful one, that one is obvious, Emma's sure that's what makes it 'good')- but Regina wanted both of them.

Regina's still floundering when Emma stands.

"Did you have anything planned for dinner tonight?"

"What?"

"Dinner- doesn't Henry have a sleepover tonight?"

"I...yes, he does." Regina's watching her closely. "Why?"

"That means that we could go out to dinner tonight, just the two of us. Maybe figure out how you want to finish that sentence?"

Regina stares at her with her jaw dropped, obviously not expecting Emma to go there, but then she smiles.

"I'd like that."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm jesswritingsome on tumblr, feel free to stop in and say hi.


End file.
